CAR RENTAL MANAGEMENT WEB APP

Case Study

A fully functional car rental system built with PHP and MySQL, enabling customers to book cars online with integrated M-Pesa STK Push payments, and providing an admin dashboard for managing bookings, fleet, and payments.

OVERVIEW

The Car Rental Management Web App is a complete solution for vehicle rental businesses. Customers can browse available cars, make secure bookings, and pay instantly via M-Pesa. The admin panel allows easy management of cars, bookings, and payments.

MY ROLE

I developed the project end-to-end, covering UI/UX, backend logic, database schema design, and payment gateway integration.

KEY FEATURES

  • User-facing booking portal to search, select, and confirm rentals.
  • Seamless M-Pesa integration for secure mobile payments.
  • Admin dashboard for car management, booking approvals, and transaction monitoring.
  • Authentication system for customers and admins with role-based access.

CHALLENGES & SOLUTIONS

  • Payment API callback handling — Solved by using Ngrok during development and ensuring real-time database updates on successful transactions.
  • Security — Removed public admin registration to prevent unauthorized access.
  • Scalability — Designed a normalized database schema for performance and easy upgrades.

FUTURE UPGRADE PLAN

I plan to rebuild the project using a modern JavaScript stack for improved scalability and performance:

  • Frontend: React + Tailwind CSS for a responsive, component-based UI.
  • Backend: Node.js + Express with REST APIs.
  • Database: MongoDB or PostgreSQL for scalability.
  • Authentication: JWT-based authentication with role-based permissions.